Friday the 13th is back in the hands of Paramount, and we have recently discovered that they are finally working on a sequel to the 2009 remake of the horror classic, Friday the 13th.
My question is, what else could they possibly do with Friday the 13th? They've done enough with this franchise in the past 40 years. Let's take a journey through every Friday the 13th movie, shall we?
In the first classic F13, Friday the 13th, which came out in 1979 and starred the great Betsy Palmer as Jason Voorhees' psychotic mother, is the setup for the franchise. This was perhaps one of the first camp in the woods horror slasher films. It centered on camp counselors whom are stalked and murdered by an unknown assailant (Betsy Palmer) while trying to reopen a summer camp that was the site of a child's (Jason Voorhees) drowning.
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The second F13 film in the franchise, Friday the 13th: Part 2, which came out in 1981, has pretty much the same story as the first film, but Mrs. Voorhees is dead and Jason Voorhees takes her place. The famous hockey mask hasn't been put on the famous killer in this movie, but he wears a bag over his head during the film as he kills the camp counselors.
Now, this is where the franchise began to go downhill. In 1984, Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter comes out. After this movie, we think it's all finally over. Jason dies, he's buried in the cemetery… how could there be a sequel? Wrong.
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Friday the 13th: A New Beginning was released a year later in '85. This movie was completely unnecessary in my opinion. Jason wasn't even Jason. (SPOILER ALERT) During the entire film, it is an impostor who kills the victims. I don't think they needed this movie at all; they should've gone straight to--
--Jason Lives: Friday the 13th Part 6. This was actually a good and enjoyable movie. We are introduced to the most famous grotesque zombie-like Jason Voorhees. At the end of this one, the killer is chained at the bottom of Crystal Lake. Does this kill him? Of course not!
In Friday the 13th: The New Blood, we are introduced to a telekinetic/telepathic girl. Not that this was a bad movie, it was entertaining, but you can tell the creators are running out of ideas. In this movie, Jason is killed by the girl's father, whom has been dead at the bottom of Crystal Lake for at least 15 years. As always, they find a way for Jason to come back and do more killing.
Jason Takes Manhattan (1989) and Jason Goes to Hell (1993) were just not good at all. Especially Jason Goes to Hell. The story of that movie was perhaps the worst horror movie story line that has ever been written… but on the bright side, Jason dies! Well, he dies in his physical body, but his spirit isn't dead.
8 years later, Jason X is released. Jason X was very entertaining, but it had a bad story… and it made no sense. Jason Voorhees in space. Really? Jason in space? Not only does Jason X take place in space, but in the future... on a spaceship. What else could Paramount possibly do to Jason in a sequel? He's been in space!
Finally, in 2003 Freddy vs. Jason was released. To this day, I have not seen this movie all the way through. I've only seen big chunks of this movie, and what I saw was not disappointing. I was expecting Damien Shannon and Mark Swift (writers) to ruin the name of the famous killers Freddy Krueger and Jason Voorhees, but they didn't, and neither did director Ronny Yu.
In 2009, the Friday the 13th remake is released into theaters. This remake is basically Friday the 13th (1980), Friday the 13th part 2 and 3 put all into one modernized film.
…After all this, what else is there to do with Jason? I'm interested in knowing what you think. Tell me in the comments below.
Thanks for reading! Follow me on Twitter @rhfang! Also, be sure to check out the Totally Horror website.
